silver wings...

here are some thrice lyrics to read and re-read and mull over...

from tender years you took me for granted

but still i deign to wander through your lungs

while you were sleeping soundly in your bed,

(your drapes were silver wings, your shutters flung)

i drew the poison from the summer's sting,

and eased the fire out of your fevered skin.

i moved in you and stirred our soul to sing;

and if you'd let me i would move again.

i've dance 'tween sunlit strands of lover's hair;

helped form the final words before your death.

i've pitied you and plied our sails with air;

gave blessing when you rose upon my breath

and after all of this i am amazed,

that i am cursed far more than i am praised.

nashville...

saw thrice in nashville this friday at rockettown and it was one of, if not the, best shows i have ever seen. it rivaled seeing sigur ros at the ryman. part of it was just the performance. they were so tight and the whole production was flawless (lights, transition, tones, everything). attach to that unmeasurable sentimental value and you can imagine about 1% what it was like to actually be there. i think part of it was that i feel that they are one band that has matured in some similar ways that i have. just from reading the evolution of their lyrics and style, not to mention the fact that they have transitioned from the punk look to the wise, old man beard, it's easy to see why i've kept coming back to this band.

also, i had my first win in a superbike race this weekend. actually, it was my first real win in about 10 or 11 years of racing. in years past, i have always ridden a class up - with faster people to make me better. this was a good win too because there were about 5 of us in my class that were all within a second of each other during practice and the saturday race. so at the beginning of the race i was in third. the 5 of us were on each other's rear tires in a line for about 2 laps and then i passed second place. the following lap i made the pass for first in the same spot as second. then i just got in a groove and started to pull away. i finished about 5 seconds ahead of 2nd place. it was really cool to win a tough race like that. felt really good.

however, in the last race of the day, whitey, one of the 5 of us who were battling, passed me on the last turn to win the race. i was pretty pissed because after the 1st lap i had led the whole race. oh well, i'll just do the same thing to him next weekend at barber.

also, i've been looking at '70's era honda motorcycles to buy and i may have found one. it's a 1972 honda cl 350. it's in pretty rad condition and is from the original owner. i'm heading to marietta, ga to look at it on wednesday and will possibly be coming home with it. for only $1500, it's a pretty awesome deal.

hope is the thing with feathers...

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

-emily dickenson

hosea...

a while ago i was talking to one of my good friends russ powell about some stuff and the conversation moved to discussing the book Hosea. russ gave a really interesting illustration he had seen from the text that i had never heard before. i thought it was really awesome. basically, God commands Hosea (a prophet to Israel) to marry a prostitute, Gomer, which he obediently does. Although Gomer bears 3 children throughout the course of their marriage, she is repeatedly unfaithful to Hosea. we can imagine Hosea's nauseating flux of emotions being married and faithful to a prostitute. His heart is repeatedly broken by Gomer when she is unfaithful, and then fulfilled, albeit tragically temporary, when she comes back to him.

Russ explained this to be an illustration for the church's marriage to Christ in the sense that we play the roll of Gomer. We are constantly rebelling from God, being unfaithful to him. Christ's heart is repeatedly broken by our unfaithfulness and sinful nature. However, when we come back to the lord (whether this is by our own will or not i don't know) we can only imagine the happiness, love, and fulfillment in Christ's heart. Christ is ever faithful to us, always there, always waiting for us with open arms to come to Him, no matter how unfaithful we have been.

In Hosea 2:14-23, the Lord tells of his love for unfaithful Israel...
"But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her out into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as seh did long ago when she was young, when i freed her from her captivity in Egypt."
"In that coming day," says the Lord," you will call me 'my husband,' instead of 'my master.' O Israel, I will cause you to forget your images of Baal; even their names you will no longer be spoken. At that time I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds and the animals that scurry along the ground so that they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety. I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as Lord."
"In that day," says the Lord, "I will answer the pleading of the sky for clouds, which will pour down water on the earth in answer to its cries for rain. Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapes and the olive trees for moisture. And the whole grand chorus will sing together, 'Jezreel' - 'God plants!'
"At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself! i will show love to those i called 'Not loved.' and to those i called 'Not my people,' i will say, 'Now you are my people.' then they will reply, 'you are our God!."

for a while now...

i've tried to find an old, beat up copy of shel silverstein's "the giving tree" in a thrift store. i think it would be so ironic/cool/telling. been looking for about a year and a half to no avail. but i'm sure one day it will happen and it will be a pretty cool moment.

i've started writing music again. it's exciting because i feel more inspired than ever.

ubuntu...

in south africa, we have a term, "Ubuntu," which refers to the spirit of the community. It is a shortened version of a south african saying that comes from the Xhosa culture: "Umuntu ngumuntu ngamuntu." This means that I am a person through other people. It means that my humanity is tied to yours. This is probably the single most important aspect of living in a highly connected planet: Our humanity is tied together. We must respect each other, and we must always keep our interconnection in mind. -Julian Hewitt


"a person with ubuntu...has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
-Desmond Tutu


"Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to improve?"
-Nelson Mandela

chocolate rain...

ever have one of those days where you can't get that chocolate rain song out of your head? yeah you know what i'm talkin about.


had one of those today.


i hate that song.


if you don't know it, click here so that it can infect you...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTZ2xpQwpA

living the dream...

yeah that's right. i did it.

last night my upstairs neighbor/lars ulrich wannabe once again started entertaining his hungry "e-fans" on rock band at 10:30 p.m. i thought to myself that surely he wouldn't go for very long, so i figured after i had taken a shower, done some dishes and taken the trash out he would probably be done. Wrong. at 11:45 he was feverishly pounding away at his plastic drumset, fueled by the roar from a crowd of people living in his t.v. so i walked up stairs, knocked on his door, and waited. after a short time he opened the door just enough so that he could see who i was (this was kind of awkward...made me feel like a creeper or something). i extended a request for him to put his sticks to rest and that if he couldn't get a score of 90% on Dani California after an hour and fifteen minutes, success probably wasn't in his near future. He somewhat sheepishly apologized and sunk back into the armchair of his single occupancy apartment/drum throne amid a sold-out concert hall filled with excited fans. i walked back down to my place, speculating on the next time i would be awoken at 6:30 a.m. by the thump of a kick drum, struggling to keep from getting booed off the stage for too poor a performance of When You Were Young by the killers.